CHAP. XXL] . THE FIFTH DAT. 317 



I would be poor, but know the humble grass 

 Still trampled on by each unworthy ass : 

 Rich hated : Wise suspected : Scorn'd if poor : 

 Great fear'd : Fair tempted : High still envy'd more : 



I have wish'd all ; but now I wish for neither ; 



Great, High, Rich, Wise, nor Fair; Poor I'll be rather. 



Would the World now adopt me for her heir, 



Would Beauty's queen entitle me the fair ; 



Fame speak me fortune's minion ; could I vie 



Angels l with India ; with a speaking eye 



Command bare heads, bow'd knees, strike justice dumb, 



As well as blind and lame ; or give a tongue 



To stones by epitaphs ; be called great master 



In the loose rhymes of every poetaster : 



Could I be more than any man that lives, 



Great, fair, rich, wise, all in superlatives : 



Yet I more freely would these gifts resign, 



Than ever fortune would have made them mine ; 



And hold one minute of this hojy leisure 



Beyond the riches of this empty -pleasure. 



Welcome, pure thoughts ! Welcome, ye silent groves ! 



These guests, these courts, my soul most dearly loves. 



Now the wing'd people of the sky shall sing 



My cheerful anthems to the gladsome spring : 



A pray'r-book, now, shall be my looking-glass, 



In which I will adore sweet virtue's face. 



Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace-cares, 



No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-fac'd fears : 



Then here I'll sit, and sigh my hot love's folly, 



And learn t' affect an holy melancholy : 



And, if Contentment be a stranger, then 



I'll ne'er look for it, but in heaven again. 2 



Fen. Well, master, these verses be worthy to keep a room 

 in every man's memory. I thank you for them; and I thank 



1 Angel, a coin of the value of ten shillings. The words to "vie 

 angels" are a metonomy, and signify to " compare wealth." In the old 

 ballad of The Beggar of Bethnal Green, a competition of this kind is 

 introduced : a young knight, about to marry the beggar's daughter, is 

 dissuaded from so unequal a match by some relations, who urge the poverty 

 of her father ; the beggar challenges them to ' ' drop angels " with him, 

 and fairly empties the purses of them all. 



The neighbourhood of Bethnal Green is seldom without a public house 

 with a sign representing the beggar, and the dissuaders of the match, 

 dropping gold ; the young woman and the knight, her lover, standing 

 between them. H. 



2 To the many short poems, abounding with fine moral sentiments, con- 

 tained in this book, I here add the following lines of Mr. Cowley, 



